People came from all over to view Manitowoc’s “Lights in Lincoln Park” this holiday season, including a woman from Freeport, Illinois who drove through the fog to attend the Fun Run & Walk as well as a carload of visitors from Europe!
Chairman of the annual Light Show, Doug Koch said “84% were local people and the remaining were from out of the area.” Volunteers do a ‘survey’ of attendees and it uncovered some gems. “One car that was interviewed had a bunch of young men in the car, we asked them where they were from and they said Paris, France.”
Lights in Lincoln Park ran from November 29th through December 28th. Funds raised benefit the Lincoln Park Zoological Society for improvements at the zoo.
Koch says the event has grown over the years, “We started 8 years ago and expanded each year. It’s about 3/4 of a mile. We have probably 70 different animal light displays right now, plus a variety of other types of light shows also.” He added, “We are letting about 3,000 vehicles come through each year and if you multiply that by 3 or 4 people per car, that’s a lot of people coming to see the show.”
Koch did say they ran into two nights of really heavy fog and it cut down on the car count. Planning meetings are set for the ‘2020’ Light Show and family and business sponsors are already reserving their displays.
